A business can take the following routes to build a new product:
- Using ready-made DIY solutions to make the product.
- Hiring a dedicated team of developers, designers, and analysts to make the product.
However, both approaches could be better. The DIY route is like cooking instant noodles. It suppresses hunger but leaves you highly dissatisfied. On the other hand, hiring an in-house team works only if you specialize in the technology. Otherwise, you would end up digging your own grave. Also, hiring full-time staff is not wise if you don’t need them often, as it would incur costs in the form of salaries, training, and other operational expenses.
A better alternative is outsourcing, where you can hire a freelancer or a third-party IT services team instead of relying on a DIY route or hiring an in-house team. The approach is like ordering food from a restaurant instead of living on two-minute noodles or hiring full-time chefs: intelligent, convenient, and cost-effective.
You can build high-quality products without additional operational costs by choosing the right software development company for outsourcing. From saving money to offering access to global talent pools, there’s a lot outsourcing can offer. However, it has some downsides that you must consider. In this blog, we’ll discuss some pros and cons of outsourcing.
Pros of Outsourcing Software Development
Cost Efficiency
Hiring and training full-time staff is expensive. Besides paying a fixed monthly salary, you must also spend a lot on overhead costs like rent, utilities, equipment, and training.
Outsourcing can help you significantly bring down capital and operational expenses as you don’t have to hire a dedicated team. It means you don’t have to spend anything on training, salary, bonuses, social protection packages, or setting up systems. All you need is to engage reliable IT consultants London or an outsourcing company for the services you acquire – which would only be a small fraction of the cost of hiring a dedicated team.
Also, you can plan monthly or even annual plan expenses during outsourcing, which lets you have control over your costs and ensure you don’t go over budget with the project.
Access to specialized skills
Training your existing staff can be expensive and time-consuming. Sometimes, when you prepare your in-house team to work on a specific technology, your competitors catch up to you. As a result, you miss out on the competitive edge.
However, by outsourcing your project to an external vendor, you can access global talents who know what they do and how to achieve success. Also, outsourcing companies pay close attention to their employees’ skills and adequately train them in new technologies. As a result, you get talented individuals with the necessary expertise without worrying about training and technology investments. Some outsourcing service providers even offer consultation to help businesses make the right technology decisions.
Flexibility
Wrong decisions can be costly in software development, especially when your team isn’t equipped to handle sudden changes in requirements. Hence, it’s essential to choose a software development team that’s flexible and innovative enough to think beyond rebuilding the project from scratch if a situation like this emerges.
Experienced outsourcing software development providers help you make the right technology decisions, so there’s no need to change anything in the project. Also, if there’s a sudden change in requirements, they offer better alternatives than rebuilding the project from scratch. Besides, you can scale resources up or down based on your business needs.
Increased efficiency
No matter how hard a business tries, it can’t control all the aspects of its operations. Something will be left behind, whether it’s the operations part or the strategy part. Sometimes, in the quest to control everything, businesses end up on both fronts.
When you outsource specific units of your business operations, they become the outsourcing services provider’s responsibility, and you can focus on things that hold more preference for you. For example, you can outsource the software development to an outsourcing partner while you can focus on core competencies and strategic vision. As a result, you would witness a significant boost in your efficiency and productivity.
Faster time-to-market
It takes time to build high-quality products. However, sadly the market doesn’t wait for anyone. No matter how brilliant your software is, your competitor will have the edge over you if they build and launch the product. Hence, you must ensure that you launch the product in the market in the shortest possible time.
With outsourcing, you can partner with diverse global talent to build and launch your product faster in the market while ensuring it meets the latest standards. This way, you retain a competitive edge and ensure your products become a success.
Cons of outsourcing software development
While outsourcing your project to a third-party service provider sounds compelling, it has some downsides you must not overlook, such as
Timezone and linguistic differences
A $5 or $10 reduction in hourly rates because of outsourcing seems so attractive that you can easily overlook linguistic and timezone differences. However, it’s essential to think about them as they can become one of the biggest reasons behind the failure of your project.
Time zone and language differences can hamper communication and lead to confusion, stretched deadlines, and a product that fails to meet your expectations. Sadly these issues prevail in outsourcing software development, and you must consider them during outsourcing to ensure it doesn’t cost your time and patience later.
Quality is a concern
Your outsourcing provider may have technology expertise. However, they might not know your company’s standards or requirements and may build products that may not fulfill your expectations. Also, outsourcing to a team with less experience can result in sub-par work, wasting time and effort.
Security risks and lack of control
Involving a third party in your product’s development is risky, even if they claim to comply with all security protocols. With an outsourcing partner, you must rely heavily on the Internet for communication. As a result, you may expose yourself to cyber attacks.
Also, outsourcing software development means giving up control over your product’s development control to the service provider. As a result, it may become difficult for you to ensure that the final product meets the company’s needs and specifications.
Hidden Costs
While outsourcing may appear cost-effective, there are hidden charges, such as travel expenses, project management costs, and the fees for changes and revisions. These costs are initially not visible but later surface, leading to delays and running out of budget.
In Conclusion
Outsourcing can be a cost-effective and efficient decision for any business looking to build high-quality products at an affordable budget. However, it has downsides that you can’t ignore at any cost. Otherwise, outsourcing will become a nightmare for you.
Hopefully, the pros and cons mentioned above gave you enough idea of whether you should outsource your project. If there’s anything else you need to know, please share in the comments. I would be happy to help you.